This was a different day and, no doubt, a different Vautour. Willie Mullins’s chaser, a leading name even in a stable that is overflowing with stars, did not travel or jump with his usual enthusiasm and was perhaps feeling the effects of a long season, having won the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham in March and then made an unexpected detour to Aintree as his trainer chased the British championship.

God’s Own, though, still saw him off by a comfortable two lengths under Paddy Brennan, with Simonsig, who was running over fences for the first time since his victory in the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham in March 2013, another length and a quarter away in third.

God’s Own also seemed to appreciate the return to this right-handed track, where he was successful in a Grade One novice chase 12 months ago. Brennan, meanwhile, was enjoying his first Grade One victory in his native country, and his first winner of any race in Ireland since the 2009-10 season.

“He gets two-and-a-half and he has the pace for two, but this track really plays to his strengths,” Brennan said. “You’d have to say on that performance that he’s better right-handed. He’s never put up a performance anything like that before. If you’d asked me at the start of the season if God’s Own would win two Grade Ones, I’d have said probably not.”

Having broken his maiden at the top level in Ireland, Brennan will be odds-on to complete a Grade One double here on Wednesday, when he rides Cue Card for Colin Tizzard in the Punchestown Gold Cup.

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Simonsig is the latest former champion to be nursed back to race fitness by Nicky Henderson, following recent successes at Cheltenham and Sandown with the outstanding Sprinter Sacre. “The only important thing is how he is tomorrow morning, but if he’s OK, we’ll have to map out something for him,” Henderson said. “He hasn’t really done anything for three years, so we might think about France. There’s nothing left in England, I know that, except for Royal Ascot.”

Rich Ricci, the owner of Vautour, said that his chaser had “probably had one race too many”. He added: “He looked flat to me and never had a good cut at his fences. Ruby [Walsh] said he never made any ground in the air and wasn’t himself.”

Mullins had already suffered an unexpected setback earlier on the card when Yorkhill, a winner at both Cheltenham and Aintree already this spring, meekly surrendered his unbeaten record in the Grade One Champion Novice Hurdle.

Yorkhill set off at 4-9 to beat five opponents but was never travelling like an odds-on chance and was beaten on the turn for home. After jumping the last, it seemed that Mullins’s second string, Petit Mouchoir, might fill in for his stable companion as he drew alongside Don’t Touch It but Barry Geraghty’s mount found more in the closing stages to win by half a length.

Don’t Touch It was Jessica Harrington’s seventh winner from 13 runners since 22 April, and is in an ideal position to benefit this week if some of Mullins’s big names are feeling weary at the end of a long campaign.

“I always thought he’d be a better horse on good ground, but that was a hell of a step up for him,” Harrington said. “Barry said that he actually got there too soon, but as soon as the other horse came to him, he went on again.”

Rule The World, whose Grand National success this month was his first win over fences, was in the field for the Grade One Champion Novice Chase, but could finish only fifth behind Zabana, who made all the running under Davy Russell.

The win brought Zabana’s novice season to a valuable conclusion but was of little consolation to punters who backed him for the JLT Novice Chase at Cheltenham last month, when Zabana whipped round and unseated Russell as the tapes went up.